Beware of flight cancellations...

[Stockjock]

I just got back today from a NYE cruise and I've shared some thoughts and photos in a separate thread.

Was originally considering flying to Miami from San Diego on a red eye getting in the day of the cruise.  Then, I rethought that and gave myself an extra day.  While my outbound flight was fine, that same flight the day before was cancelled.

Coming back home, I checked into Southwest Airlines 2 days ago from the ship and got all of the usual reminders about my upcoming flight.  About 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave the ship, Southwest informed me that they had cancelled my flights and rescheduled me for new flights the next day.  Tried to reach Southwest with a 2+ hour hold.  We were probably the last ones off the ship, as I was on the phone trying to figure out some way to get home.  No flights were available from MIA or FLL on Southwest and no other airline had a reasonably priced option ($1,100 on United one way).

And just as I was trying to book a hotel, they shut off the ship's wifi.

Ultimately, we sat outside of the port and I got the Pullman Hotel Miami Airport on Hotwire, which we liked a lot.  Flights were crowded but uneventful today.  I'm hoping Southwest will help me cover about $300 or so in expenses incurred by the cancellation.  I might also have some "trip interruption" insurance, if I can prove that the flight was delayed due to mechanical problems or weather (covid doesn't count).  I think it was weather-related, so I'll also explore that.

I suppose the point is that, with respect to flights, it can be a bit crazy out there.  Definitely a good idea to give yourself some extra time and have a Plan B and possibly a Plan C and Plan D if travel plans go awry.

[Arizona Wildcat]

Hope you can get some assistance from the airline, but not likely.  Various family members flew this week and all had cancellations and/or long delays.  They were given assistance in rebooking - nothing else.  It is certainly a bit of chaos and probably will stay that way until this Covid mess settles down.  Airlines simply put are missing crews and have cancelled lots of flights well into spring.

 

[Stockjock]

36 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Hope you can get some assistance from the airline, but not likely.  Various family members flew this week and all had cancellations and/or long delays.  They were given assistance in rebooking - nothing else.  It is certainly a bit of chaos and probably will stay that way until this Covid mess settles down.  Airlines simply put are missing crews and have cancelled lots of flights well into spring.

 

Southwest said (without asking) that they are sending me two $250 flight vouchers.  I will still ask them to pay some of my expenses.  We'll see.

[hcat]

Glad you made it home. Travel not easy theses days.

At least you were notified and given a new flight and some vouchers.

 

.  A few weeks ago  in NY, our friends were  getting ready to go to the airport and  checked their SW flight to Florida...It was marked CANCELLED.  No text, no e mail no resched flt.  Luckily, they got something on Frontier for the next day,

 

Sw Is overwhelmed these days...  We are flying with  them in March..hope things improve by then.  That's our final SW res as we have recently  switched to Frontier which offers us non stops, bundling to fit our needs and  lower prices.

[dd likes to cruise]

9 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Southwest said (without asking) that they are sending me two $250 flight vouchers.  I will still ask them to pay some of my expenses.  We'll see.

I glad you got this at least. I was getting ready to respond about my experience.   I had long delays with Southwest around 4th of July, still got to my destination and money back on changes. But they sent me $100.00 voucher for the inconvenience. They appear to be trying. Glad you got home okay. 

[fsr44]

Plan on flight delays.  We were on the NYE cruise.  No problem catching our first flight from FLL to Newark.  But second leg cancelled, no back up til 11:30 the following night.  Also, not sufficient ground grew to get our jet the last 10 yards to the gate, so we sat on the tarmac for the longest time.  Ended up renting a car and driving 4 hours home in the middle of the night.  

[Algebralovr]

If you have the emails from Southwest with the cancellation notice and reschedule, your trip interruption insurance should cover you.  I’d make a claim there. 

[Stockjock]

Not at all impressed with Southwest.  I hate their boarding system and much prefer an assigned seat system.  Plus, their boarding system, where you line up in 2 rows and "fight" for a seat, doesn't facilitate social distancing, which is imperfect on every airline, but worse on Southwest.

I looked at some of their recent and upcoming flights on Flight Aware and they are cancelling flights right and left.  For example, after cancelling our Jan. 4th flights, they put us on 2 Jan 5th flights from MIA to Nashville and Nashville to SAN, which were roughly on schedule.  Our flight later went from SAN to DEN which was delayed by almost 2 hours.  It was then scheduled to go east from DEN and that was cancelled.  It then went to Nashville and that too was cancelled, and I believe today's Nashville to SAN leg is also cancelled.

In San Diego, Southwest has at least 2 baggage carousels.   So they put 4 flights (Nashville, Denver, Reno and Phoenix) on 1 carousel and 1 flight (Oakland) on the other.  Even though we arrived before everyone but Denver, they put the other 2 flights ahead of us and we had about a 45 minute wait to get our bags.  The Southwest agent on the PA even said they were thinking about switching to the unused carousel, but they didn't do that, for whatever reason.  So everyone stood together irritated.  And again, more social distancing issues, as most were standing in roughly the same place for roughly 45 minutes.

I know that some love Southwest, but I walked away unimpressed.  The only good things were that the employees were very nice, the planes seemed to have more legroom, and I do like the 2 bags checked free policy.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

22 minutes ago, Algebralovr said:

If you have the emails from Southwest with the cancellation notice and reschedule, your trip interruption insurance should cover you.  I’d make a claim there. 

My credit card is Amex Platinum and the default insurance they use is AIG.  They told me that I don't qualify for trip cancellation insurance, but may qualify under their trip delay coverage, but only if the delay is weather-related or mechanical-related.  There are numerous articles stating that Southwest cancelled hundreds of flights that day due to severe winter weather over Texas, and our cancelled flight did connect in Texas, but I'd need something in writing from Southwest stating that weather was the reason for the cancellation.  

If we got sick w/Covid, that might be covered, but that wasn't the case.  If Southwest cancelled due to not enough pilots, covid, etc, that is not a covered event, at least in terms of the AMEX Platinum/AIG coverage.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Stockjock

[Homosassa]

For anyone flying Southwest using Ft Lauderdale Airport, check if any flight are available from West Palm Beach Airport.

 

The West Palm Beach Airport is 50 miles north of the Ft Lauderdale Airport (about an hour's drive depending on traffic).

 

Flights have been cancelled twice out of Ft Lauderdale for members of our party. They were able to switch to a flight out of West Palm Beach.

[Stockjock]

19 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

For anyone flying Southwest using Ft Lauderdale Airport, check if any flight are available from West Palm Beach Airport.

 

The West Palm Beach Airport is 50 miles north of the Ft Lauderdale Airport (about an hour's drive depending on traffic).

 

Flights have been cancelled twice out of Ft Lauderdale for members of our party. They were able to switch to a flight out of West Palm Beach.

Good suggestion.  While I didn't specifically mention Palm Beach, I asked if they had anything within 100 miles of Miami that could get me home that day.  I was told no.  But maybe that will help someone else.

Miami isn't the worst place to get stuck for a day.  But it's still stressful and inconvenient, especially when the cancellation occurs literally as you're getting booted from the ship's cabin to head to the airport.

[cruisin_123]

My son took 4 days to go from NH to OK for basic training for the military. He is still in the air, so technically, he hasn't even arrived yet :). He had 2 layovers and each time, there was only 1 flight leaving from a particular airport, or the next leg was cancelled, and the most bizarre thing this morning was they took his flight number and assigned it a completely different route! Instead of going to Houston, it was now going to Orlando. As luck would have it, his Houston-OKC flight was cancelled this morning, so the agent was able to book him a completely new reservation through Chicago. He's going to be talking about this experience for years!

[Julma]

There are rules about compensation for cancelled flights.  Airlines love for you to except their vouchers, but you may be entitled to much more.  I'd look into it.